Managing mental health: athlete help-seeking

ABSTRACT

Despite sport managers’ efforts to address mental health, many athletes have increased risks of anxiety and depression. Unfortunately, many athletes do not seek help. Using a mixed-method approach, this study’s purpose was to identify organizational factors that impact an athlete’s willingness to seek help (Phase I) and determine the extent to which these identified factors predict athlete help-seeking intentions (Phase II). Phase I focus group (n = 30 athletes) results indicated that Athlete Culture (sub-themes Businesslike and Toughness) and Coach Connection have the greatest impact on athlete help-seeking. Phase II survey (n = 474 athletes) results indicated through structural equation modelling that Businesslike, Toughness and Coach Connection were associated with help-seeking, while controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, and common method variance. Results indicate sport managers that establish genuine relationships with athletes and de-emphasize the sport ethic will better facilitate a help-seeking culture in their organizations.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Athlete culture and coach connection impact athletes’ willingness to seek help for a mental health problem.

• Athletes who endors a businesslike culture report greater intentions to seek help from mental health professionals.

• Athletes who endors a culture of toughness report a lesser intent to seek help from mental health professionals.

• Athletes who report stronger connections to their head coachreport greater intentions to seek help..

KEYWORDS:

• Businesslike
• toughness
• connection
• help-seeking
• mixed-methods

Acknowledgments

The research reported here was supported by the American Athletic Conference Academic Consortium, through a grant to East Carolina University and University of Houston. The opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent views of the American Athletic Conference Academic Consortium.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the American Athletic Conference Academic Consortium.